Glimmercat Education: Letter of the Week for Q

Okay, for humor's sake let's just say I "Quailed" at the thought of creating a letter Q packet. And since there's usually at least 30% truth in most humor, I'll admit that it was lovely to complete this letter packet to my satisfaction and feel that I'd created some really worthwhile activities in the process. You can check it out here.

Let's start with my son's favorite craft, the quiver. A quiver is our whole schtick for Q. Here's our lesson plan for the first day with Glimmercat and Q:

All right, maybe an arrow doesn't quite make a perfect "Qu-!" sound, but it isn't too far off. Here's an arrow sound effect. With a little imagination, that works pretty well. And "quiver" is a great word to help make the connection.

My son was super excited about the Quiver craft.

The printed quiver looks pretty legit, and actually holds the little Q-tip arrows quite well. You could just stop there...

But I had seen on Pinterest, a way to make a bow for Q-tips out of a popsicle stick soaked in water. Here's the link that explains how. So, we tried it out...

And do you know, it works! This little bow sent the arrows flying a good two yards off, if you made sure your arrow fledges didn't get in the way of the dental floss.

My son had so much fun with this he wore out his first bow and I had to make him a second.

So, "Q is for Quiver", was definitely a win for us and a great introduction for the Q letter of the week packet. I mean, hey, Glimmercat doesn't get much cooler than being an archery whiz, as witnessed by our Path of Motion Color Sheet here.

So, the next fun craft we tried was Q is for a Queen.

The end result looks pretty neat, for a paper image, and the kids got to choose which gems to add, and where to glue them on. The crown is also available in black and white so they could color it themselves as an option. I printed ours out in the colored version, and my daughter was loving the end result...

We fitted it on over the little bow she was wearing. I can't promise an easy way for every kid to wear it, but even my son wanted to at least try it on. You could also put the crown on a small stuffed animal to turn it into a Queen.

Our Quail craft is another that works best printed out in color. Here is a nice introductory video of quail that help small children see this small bird up close and personal:

Once your kids have watched that short little clip, they'll more than understand how this little Quail does his thing.

A quilt is usually the go-to craft for Q in preschool and kinder. And we offer ours, here too:

Fun factoid about this craft here is that the fabric images I found are pictures actual fabric reproductions from the 1800's.

But one of the best things about this Q packet for me was discovering a children's book I hadn't read before. After reading great reviews, we bought this one through Amazon:

It's one of those stories, that leaves a lasting impression...kinda like "I'll Love You Forever" or "The Giving Tree". After I sobbed my own way through the story, which has amazing illustrations in addition to a beautiful story, (see below)...

...I thought for a long time about what sort of Reading Literacy activity to go along with it. Finally, I decided that parents are probably the ones to take this story to the next level with an activity that echoes the beautiful giving side of the story. For our activity, I decided to focus on the quilt patterns. One Quilt pattern showcased in the picture book is called the "Friendship Star".

You can read more about this story, "The Quiltmaker's Gift", here, where I review it in more detail.

Using colors they choose themselves, and following a grid of symbols, children can recreate the pattern to see what the end result of a quilt looks like.

But, if you feel up to it, I'd echo this picture book (which is a beautiful lesson in a generosity), by looking for a place for kids to be able to give. Maybe raking leaves or picking flowers for someone, or deciding to give socks, toothbrushes or granola bars to a homeless shelter. Yes, the story really is that good.

For a lot more Q activities, both printables, reading literacy activities, flash cards and a Letter Q Matching Game, head over to our teacher store here.

Letter of the Week for Y

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Letter of the Week for Q

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